The lonely tech post thread.

[UnderOpenSky]

Those Reolink cameras actually look OK, and you can use them locally, without sending the video via China*. I bought a Reolink doorbell but haven't fitted it yet, so I can't comment on the quality, but they do seem reasonably priced. I'll probably be using Hikvision for my outdoor cameras.
The Coral accelerator does all the detection stuff. It's better to offload the job to that than the CPU, because they're far better at the job, apparently, and they'll just plug into any spare slot. I'll (hopefully) be dropping one in place of the WiFi card on the mini PC I have running Home Assistant. I haven't done much research past where you're at now, but this setup seems to be the way to go.

Home assistant isn't for everyone, and I try not to recommend it where possible, as it's a bit of a learning curve, but I've just reached the stage where my mother needs it at her house, as I've automated her central heating and I'm nearly done making a fuel level sensor/sender for her oil tank. She also has cameras all round the house, and all the lights are 'smart' so it all needs a central hub, that isn't in China, and Home Assistant seems to be the best option for that. It might not be essential but it's essential for nerds


*dunno if that applies to them all.

Oh god. I love a tech project, I'm just not sure I've got that much to automate. I ended up going with a Nest Thermostat as it's got to be used by the OH, so needs to just work, but stuff like this I don't mind playing with. Mind you I've just got a new outside LED PIR light and when I saw I could have remote control, rather than faffing with screws for PIR settings I jumped on it, so I maybe I missed a trick not getting a smart one and I've got more uses for it then I first think. I'll concentrate on the NVR part first anyway....

It looks like with Reolink you need to be careful, some of them work great with Frigate, others it's hard to get certain features working. I'd actually forgotten about Hikvsion, assumed they were out my price range, but some are really well priced!. When I started with that MSP three years one of my first projects in tech was getting a securities company own system setup using their kit and remember being blown away by image quality. Amcrest seems to come up a lot, but it seems they cost way more in the UK than the US.

Looks like you can get those Coral accelerators as USB which I think is more interesting as you can move it between machines. I need to work out if Frigate would be best on my older 18 core Xeon or my tiny 9th gen USFF which is also my Plex server. This project will also give me the kick up the arse to set up some VLANs as if I'm using this much chinese kit, I'd quite like a little bit of isolation.

Edit - What's made you pick Frigate over Blue Iris which seems to pop up a lot?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Oh god. I love a tech project, I'm just not sure I've got that much to automate. I ended up going with a Nest Thermostat as it's got to be used by the OH, so needs to just work, but stuff like this I don't mind playing with. Mind you I've just got a new outside LED PIR light and when I saw I could have remote control, rather than faffing with screws for PIR settings I jumped on it, so I maybe I missed a trick not getting a smart one and I've got more uses for it then I first think. I'll concentrate on the NVR part first anyway....

It looks like with Reolink you need to be careful, some of them work great with Frigate, others it's hard to get certain features working. I'd actually forgotten about Hikvsion, assumed they were out my price range, but some are really well priced!. When I started with that MSP three years one of my first projects in tech was getting a securities company own system setup using their kit and remember being blown away by image quality. Amcrest seems to come up a lot, but it seems they cost way more in the UK than the US.

Looks like you can get those Coral accelerators as USB which I think is more interesting as you can move it between machines. I need to work out if Frigate would be best on my older 18 core Xeon or my tiny 9th gen USFF which is also my Plex server. This project will also give me the kick up the arse to set up some VLANs as if I'm using this much chinese kit, I'd quite like a little bit of isolation.

Edit - What's made you pick Frigate over Blue Iris which seems to pop up a lot?

I don't have an answer for that. Maybe the default position has changed since I looked into it a year ago. Things keep getting put on the long finger, and time passes very quickly these days.

 

[Saul Goodman]

I bought one of these, for an experiment.




It's a water distilling thing. It boils the water and passes the resulting steam through an air-cooled coil to condense it again, and switches the machine off once it boils dry.
It's a simple system, with a thermal cut-out switch that activates once the temperature rises a bit above boiling... so I made it a bit smarter.

I printed a spacer for the base, to facilitate the fitting of an SCR, to control the power to the heating element.





And an ESP32 with a touchscreen, to govern the SCR's output to the heating element, with the aid of a temperature sensor.



A few hours in Solidworks, to draw an enclosure for the controller.



And quickly printed a prototype.


View attachment k1_Case Front and Rear-v1.4.gcode_07-11-2024_16h14.mp4





Added a buck converter and an opto-isolated interface between the SCR and the ESP32, for the sake of not electrocuting oneself.
And some code, to bring it all together.




It's shame I no longer drink alcohol.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I bought one of these, for an experiment.

View attachment 450487


It's a water distilling thing. It boils the water and passes the resulting steam through an air-cooled coil to condense it again, and switches the machine off once it boils dry.
It's a simple system, with a thermal cut-out switch that activates once the temperature rises a bit above boiling... so I made it a bit smarter.

I printed a spacer for the base, to facilitate the fitting of an SCR, to control the power to the heating element.


View attachment 450488
View attachment 450489

And an ESP32 with a touchscreen, to govern the SCR's output to the heating element, with the aid of a temperature sensor.

View attachment 450491

A few hours in Solidworks, to draw an enclosure for the controller.

View attachment 450492

And quickly printed a prototype.


View attachment 450502



View attachment 450496

Added a buck converter and an opto-isolated interface between the SCR and the ESP32, for the sake of not electrocuting oneself.
And some code, to bring it all together.

View attachment 450495


It's shame I no longer drink alcohol.

I'm both incredibly impressed, but also slightly confused. Why do you need to distill water?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I don't have an answer for that. Maybe the default position has changed since I looked into it a year ago. Things keep getting put on the long finger, and time passes very quickly these days.

Yes, I can relate to that.

I ordered a £20 TP Link 2k indoor WiFi camera as a toy to play with

 

[Saul Goodman]

I'm both incredibly impressed, but also slightly confused. Why do you need to distill water?

Depending on where you live, tap water can be more than a little nasty.
I suppose I should also add a program to distill water.

Yes, I can relate to that.

I ordered a £20 TP Link 2k indoor WiFi camera as a toy to play with

I have a couple of TP-Link cameras to check in on the cats while I'm away from home

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Depending on where you live, tap water can be more than a little nasty.
I suppose I should also add a program to distill water.


I have a couple of TP-Link cameras to check in on the cats while I'm away from home

It's fucking shit and going back to Amazon this week

I can't even see the image quality. I can't even get the dam thing to pair properly. I'm actually far to busy for the next few weeks to start this project, but I'm tired of study and thought I'd have a play with the default app. I've wasted an over an hour on it, despite my lack of time. I mean, I work in tech ffs*, I should be able to set up some shitty consumer IOT junk.

Out of laziness, I tried attaching it to main SSID. Failed several times, despite the motor spinning it round and LEDs looking like they were doing something. Had a horrible flashback from four years ago when I suggested somewhere I worked bought TP Link smart sockets, and I was responsible for setting them. Disabled the 5ghz band on my setup. No joy. Set up fresh SSID with just 2.4Ghz and everything as basic as it could be without writing out a sign that says free candy to anyone driving past. It pairs and then refuses to connect. Tells me to check my signal. It's in a room with semicommercial hard-wired AP. Even gave it a static IP. Fucked around with phone settings. It's a shame as I quite liked the idea of something wifi to play with as I tried different systems as I could move it round the house.

What amazes me is how bad some of the TP Link consumer shit is and yet their Omada line is awesome. I mean, it's not going to replace Cisco scale, but I very rarely see a bad word said about it for decent sized deployments and it's cheaper than Ubiquiti and don't fuck with their customers so much or have as many security breaches (that we know off).

* not saying I'm good at it or anything

 

[UnderOpenSky]

On the plus side what's blown me away today has been Google Gemini. I'm a huge fan of ChatGPT, it's how I blag my way through life, I tried the web version of Gemini and the answers are better than Co-Pilot, but it doesn't look back over your conversation in the same way, so is ultimately far less useful as you've got to type longer questions.

I downloaded the Gemini app so I can talk to it and wow. I've never really been impressed with smart speakers, and the only time I use voice is in the car to change a track on Spotify. But this is next level. I've got an exam Friday and was stuck in traffic for an hour, so just started asking questions about concepts I'd revised earlier, getting it give more detail when I needed it. I then told it what exam I was doing and got it to ask me questions. Most tech exams are multiple choice, so that was actually quite hard but good practice in a different sort of way (meetings with managers where I have to explain things). It would accept or refuse my answer, but even if correct would add bits. I came in and kept using it whilst I prepared dinner. I accept this isn't a normal thing to do, but it's the first time I've been really impressed with something for a little while.

 

[two sheds]

I've a load of LPs which I want to sell. Very early on I learned not to lend them out to people because they either come back scratched from the deck's needle or from people sliding - not carefully placing - them back in their sleeve.

I'd like to check on their quality but also listen to some of them. I'm sort of wondering whether I could take a photograph of an LP, and instruct some AI program to follow the groove and give me say an ogg vorbis file of what the music sounds like, given that a needle would pick up the various frequencies of vibrations.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I've a load of LPs which I want to sell. Very early on I learned not to lend them out to people because they either come back scratched from the deck's needle or from people sliding - not carefully placing - them back in their sleeve.

I'd like to check on their quality but also listen to some of them. I'm sort of wondering whether I could take a photograph of an LP, and instruct some AI program to follow the groove and give me say an ogg vorbis file of what the music sounds like, given that a needle would pick up the various frequencies of vibrations.

Couldn't you play them and record them directly via that route?

 

[two sheds]

I do have a record deck but I've never liked the format - besides the risk of bouncing the head across the record, if the deck's (ancient) needle is off I'm convinced it would bugger it.

Eta: thinking about it all except a few I can get digitally - it's more that I'd like to know whether the quality is still good so I can say what the condition is.

But I doubt whether AI could tell whether there's distortion because of a blunt needle

Eta: ignore that post

 

[Saul Goodman]

It's fucking shit and going back to Amazon this week

I can't even see the image quality. I can't even get the dam thing to pair properly. I'm actually far to busy for the next few weeks to start this project, but I'm tired of study and thought I'd have a play with the default app. I've wasted an over an hour on it, despite my lack of time. I mean, I work in tech ffs*, I should be able to set up some shitty consumer IOT junk.

Out of laziness, I tried attaching it to main SSID. Failed several times, despite the motor spinning it round and LEDs looking like they were doing something. Had a horrible flashback from four years ago when I suggested somewhere I worked bought TP Link smart sockets, and I was responsible for setting them. Disabled the 5ghz band on my setup. No joy. Set up fresh SSID with just 2.4Ghz and everything as basic as it could be without writing out a sign that says free candy to anyone driving past. It pairs and then refuses to connect. Tells me to check my signal. It's in a room with semicommercial hard-wired AP. Even gave it a static IP. Fucked around with phone settings. It's a shame as I quite liked the idea of something wifi to play with as I tried different systems as I could move it round the house.

What amazes me is how bad some of the TP Link consumer shit is and yet their Omada line is awesome. I mean, it's not going to replace Cisco scale, but I very rarely see a bad word said about it for decent sized deployments and it's cheaper than Ubiquiti and don't fuck with their customers so much or have as many security breaches (that we know off).

* not saying I'm good at it or anything

If I remember rightly, one of the cheap TP-Link cameras I bought was a bastard to set up, until I discovered that you needed to download and install an app on the PC to make it happen.
Or I might be thinking of one of the others. I have quite a few. Most of them resigned to junk boxes.

 

[Saul Goodman]

It's fucking shit and going back to Amazon this week

And as if by magic, I just got an email from amazon.

 

[Elpenor]

I've a load of LPs which I want to sell. Very early on I learned not to lend them out to people because they either come back scratched from the deck's needle or from people sliding - not carefully placing - them back in their sleeve.

I'd like to check on their quality but also listen to some of them. I'm sort of wondering whether I could take a photograph of an LP, and instruct some AI program to follow the groove and give me say an ogg vorbis file of what the music sounds like, given that a needle would pick up the various frequencies of vibrations.

I was trying to find a cd on eBay, anyway I discovered that there was no cd available as this album was only ever released on vinyl. Not a fan of vinyl myself, but one of the blokes selling it on vinyl had a link to a Dropbox or similar recording of the record so you could listen to it and check it was good quality.

So I just listened to the digital version he had created once and that was enough for me

I’ll try and find the eBay link and PM you in case that’s any help?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I was trying to find a cd on eBay, anyway I discovered that there was no cd available as this album was only ever released on vinyl. Not a fan of vinyl myself, but one of the blokes selling it on vinyl had a link to a Dropbox or similar recording of the record so you could listen to it and check it was good quality.

So I just listened to the digital version he had created once and that was enough for me

I’ll try and find the eBay link and PM you in case that’s any help?

Pretty sure that breaches all kinds of rules and laws. I like it.

I guess your average collector though isn't fussed about piracy as you don't buy vinyl just for the music.

 

[Elpenor]

Pretty sure that breaches all kinds of rules and laws. I like it.

I guess your average collector though isn't fussed about piracy as you don't buy vinyl just for the music.

Yes clearly the market of buyers are those who have to own the vinyl for completeness

 

[two sheds]

It's a quandry really though. I really can't be arsed with listing all the LPs individually, plus the faff of sending them out individually with the risk some are going to get returned as scratched (might be worth taking a photograph before I sent them just as a check).

The alternative is the local auction house, though, which is a great place if you're buying stuff but low prices generally if you're selling. I've got a few of medieval music and Old English which aren't on Discogs but again I don't know whether there'd be a demand and I can't decide whether LPs are going to hold their value if there are decreasing numbers of record players.

What the market really needs is some sort of AI record player that you can just photograph the album and the AI player will play it

:shrugs:

 

[two sheds]

Got an email from Which? this morning for all our Apple users

Our collective action against Apple

Hello,

As you’re a Which? member, we’re letting you know that we’re taking tech giant Apple to court for breaching competition law.

Using a legal mechanism first introduced in 2015, we’re seeking compensation on behalf of around 40 million UK consumers. We believe that Apple has abused its power by failing to provide users with a choice of cloud storage providers, while steering customers towards its own iCloud service.

This led to Apple customers being ripped off with inflated iCloud subscription fees, and we plan to hold it to account. If we win, millions of UK iPhone and iPad iOS users could be entitled to their share of a £3bn claim against Apple – and you could be one of them.

Find out if you’re eligible using our tool, and register for updates on the case. Please note, you will be taken through to our case website, which is managed by EPIQ on our behalf.

Not sure whether you have to be a Which member to apply, from the sound of it not. Web address https://www.cloudclaim.co.uk/?mi_u=216536047&mi_ecmp=C_S_EM_PE___20241114

 

[Saul Goodman]

Got an email from Which? this morning for all our Apple users

Our collective action against Apple

Hello,

As you’re a Which? member, we’re letting you know that we’re taking tech giant Apple to court for breaching competition law.

Using a legal mechanism first introduced in 2015, we’re seeking compensation on behalf of around 40 million UK consumers. We believe that Apple has abused its power by failing to provide users with a choice of cloud storage providers, while steering customers towards its own iCloud service.

This led to Apple customers being ripped off with inflated iCloud subscription fees, and we plan to hold it to account. If we win, millions of UK iPhone and iPad iOS users could be entitled to their share of a £3bn claim against Apple – and you could be one of them.

Find out if you’re eligible using our tool, and register for updates on the case. Please note, you will be taken through to our case website, which is managed by EPIQ on our behalf.

Not sure whether you have to be a Which member to apply, from the sound of it not. Web address https://www.cloudclaim.co.uk/?mi_u=216536047&mi_ecmp=C_S_EM_PE___20241114

I think they're underestimating the power of fanboy. "No true Apple user" would dream of suing Apple.
There will be fanboys holding vigils at Apple HQ

 

[Lazy Llama]

I think I've had Dropbox on my iPhone from well before iCloud files became a thing.

 

[xenon]

It's a quandry really though. I really can't be arsed with listing all the LPs individually, plus the faff of sending them out individually with the risk some are going to get returned as scratched (might be worth taking a photograph before I sent them just as a check).

The alternative is the local auction house, though, which is a great place if you're buying stuff but low prices generally if you're selling. I've got a few of medieval music and Old English which aren't on Discogs but again I don't know whether there'd be a demand and I can't decide whether LPs are going to hold their value if there are decreasing numbers of record players.

What the market really needs is some sort of AI record player that you can just photograph the album and the AI player will play it

:shrugs:

You'd probably need to scan the track grooves with a lazer to have it play back an accurate representation of that particular piece of vinyl. But Philips already did this IIRC in the 70s or 80s.

I guess the only reason record players would stop being produced in similar numbers as to day, is because people can't afford the space of having a record collection and the precarious nature of private renting. It's a middle aged house owning demograph buying vinyl. People who like the format though will still exist.

e2a

You might find this interesting.

Laser turntable - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[xenon]

I've got dropbox on iPhone as it's a much more convenient way of sharing stuff between my phone and PCs.

Apple.. iCloud... Photos. Rant incoming...

Why the suffering fuck Apple still won't let you rename photo files in the native app FFS.



I can't copy it off the phone over usb as I have no idea which

 

[UnderOpenSky]

It's where Google I think is great, having the client on my PCs and being able to access through a web browser. But I'm still pissed of years later that moved photos out of the standard drive so they don't sync with the rest of your files.

Whilst I trust Google more then me with my files, I don't totally trust them, so like to backup the locally synced files to another device.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I passed my CompTIA Sec+ today. It's been quite stressful as I was ill on the training course, so didn't take much in, then really ill for a week shortly after so felt super behind. None of the concepts are hard, but they're broad exams and quite theory based, which I think I like. The Microsoft ones are obviously very focussed on how things are done, but given how often they change stuff, I'm not sure how relevant my Endpoint Administrator Associate will be in a few years, but I still benefit from the Network+ I did almost three years ago, shortly after I started in IT.

I felt all the pressure to do the exam today and not defer, as I start training for the Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Associate on Monday. This is the one I'm dreading most. At least with Endpoint one, I'd spent some time with Intune, but I don't use Entra. Hell as organisation we don't use it to anywhere it's potential. And it's a question of when, not if we're going to give up our own tenancy and move to the central one. I'm also just not that interested. After that, I've got to pass IC2 SSCP and get to move up a pay band. It's an extra 7k a year, which is what I've got to keep reminding myself when I'm set my alarm stupid early or asking ChatGPT variations of the same question late at night, over and over until I think I understand something. But man I'm tired. And I'm going to drink some beers tonight.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

If I remember rightly, one of the cheap TP-Link cameras I bought was a bastard to set up, until I discovered that you needed to download and install an app on the PC to make it happen.
Or I might be thinking of one of the others. I have quite a few. Most of them resigned to junk boxes.

So it appears my partner has gone from being open to this idea to being dead set against cameras everywhere. I don't think this is my hill to die on.

It's a shame as it's the tech project part of it all that appealed, rather then any real fear.

 

[xenon]

I passed my CompTIA Sec+ today. It's been quite stressful as I was ill on the training course, so didn't take much in, then really ill for a week shortly after so felt super behind. None of the concepts are hard, but they're broad exams and quite theory based, which I think I like. The Microsoft ones are obviously very focussed on how things are done, but given how often they change stuff, I'm not sure how relevant my Endpoint Administrator Associate will be in a few years, but I still benefit from the Network+ I did almost three years ago, shortly after I started in IT.

I felt all the pressure to do the exam today and not defer, as I start training for the Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator Associate on Monday. This is the one I'm dreading most. At least with Endpoint one, I'd spent some time with Intune, but I don't use Entra. Hell as organisation we don't use it to anywhere it's potential. And it's a question of when, not if we're going to give up our own tenancy and move to the central one. I'm also just not that interested. After that, I've got to pass IC2 SSCP and get to move up a pay band. It's an extra 7k a year, which is what I've got to keep reminding myself when I'm set my alarm stupid early or asking ChatGPT variations of the same question late at night, over and over until I think I understand something. But man I'm tired. And I'm going to drink some beers tonight.

Congrats.

I'm still doing the Google Cyber Security cert. It's entry level. The networking stuff I've done previously obv helps alot. Current course part is on using Python. I've slowed down a bit, just doing a few hours a week but should have this done by Xmas.

Actually want to do more study as finding Coursera really works for me so far. Maybe more python or some other security thing next year.

 

[xenon]

I read Perl is actually better for text processing, searching, manipulating over Python. Parsing logs, that sort of stuff. More efficient. It just makes my brain hurt looking at it. Apparently a common response...

 

[existentialist]

I read Perl is actually better for text processing, searching, manipulating over Python. Parsing logs, that sort of stuff. More efficient. It just makes my brain hurt looking at it. Apparently a common response...

I loved perl for quick'n'dirty parsing of stuff, as you describe, but I did find it quite an untidy language to use for bigger stuff (albeit less so than PHP), and I don't mind trading the regular expression convenience of perl against the orderliness of, eg., python.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Congrats.

I'm still doing the Google Cyber Security cert. It's entry level. The networking stuff I've done previously obv helps alot. Current course part is on using Python. I've slowed down a bit, just doing a few hours a week but should have this done by Xmas.

Actually want to do more study as finding Coursera really works for me so far. Maybe more python or some other security thing next year.

Yes, the Sec+ was pretty entry level. I think I've mentioned, but applied for a job in the infrastructure team doing M365/Azure stuff and at interview I found out they now wanted someone for cyber. I never ever considered that would be where I'd so it's funny where these things take you. Some stuff I really focussed on in the limited time I had, like I know everyone in the team hates/dreads SSL certs (we have an internal CA which was set up by a third party, I really wanted to read our docs and correlate it with the exam objectives, but just didn't have the time). So I went too deep into stuff like that and didn't spend enough time on the management fluff. Which I believe IC2 SSCP is all about.

I want to do more networking stuff, because if I am doing this cyber thing, then I think I need to know more. I know just having a cert without experience doesn't mean much, but wish there was something that wasn't quite so vendor focused as CCNA. Although the trust has just thrown out an amazing opportunity which is a network training role with a CCNA, so you get the hands on and the cert. I suspect anyone with any ambition will take it and leave.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I read Perl is actually better for text processing, searching, manipulating over Python. Parsing logs, that sort of stuff. More efficient. It just makes my brain hurt looking at it. Apparently a common response...

You're ahead of me. I fear this role isn't going to be as technical as I'd like. We've lots of expensive platforms that aren't used properly (or at all). I suspect a lot of it is going to be pulling reports and then asking other people to do things.

It's one reason I've decided to be an idiot and do the Linux + beta in Jan when I've got so much else on. So much security stuff is Linux based, I feel I need a broader understanding of the platform. I'm not saying you can't do this on Windows, but it doesn't seem the done thing. I actually set up a Debian VM last night when i was tired and wired, and my plan is to use it as my daily driver for everything other than gaming. My first task is to find an RDP like alternative that's free, supports multiple monitors and plays video nicely.